FlipTheBird

You are aware we are at home and, should the game be tied in the top of the 9th, we will at no point ever have a lead for a closer to Save, right?

Ouch. Man do we have a little dead weight in this part of the pen.

Montgomery is 100% getting traded... and as a rental there's a ceiling on what he'll cost, but given that he could well be the best SP for sale this year, the Cardinals will not lack for suitors. So he's not going to be acquired for anyone's spare parts, either.

This is just...incorrect. With 2 years of control beyond 2023, his pedigree and what he flashed last year, Dylan Cease is going to take a heckuva package for any team to acquire. I would imagine that for the O's to land him the offer would have to start with one of Cowser or Mayo, and then have several other pieces.

At the time Cedric ran Sims had been throwing some strikes… not saying it wasn’t a bad idea overall, just that we didn’t know yet how all over the place Sims was. I’m torn on O’Hearn, as eventually you do have to get another couple hits to come back and win this game and gambling that Sims might throw a cookie to get a strike there is a reasonable wager.

Doesn’t seem like they’ve got it tonight. Everyone’s lost at the plate. Happens.

Or it rains mid-inning, or it never rains enough at all for a delay, or… It’s a cutesy attempt to outsmart Mother Nature. Not worth it.

You’re still playing with fire of a sort, trying to outsmart the weather. Tonight as an example… an opener would have gone two innings, at best, before giving the ball to Irvin anyway. Who would have then pitched the third and been removed after the second rain delay regardless.

Just because a guy leaves and finds some modicum of success doesn't mean the Orioles "whiffed" on them. There's an incredible history of players across baseball history who didn't find themselves until their second, third, or even fourth stop. And the Orioles gave Yaz tons of time - and he's far from a player that would have changed *any* part of the last 5 years. Some of the young players that the O's wind up trading the next few seasons will probably go on to have productive careers. That is not a failure on the team's part - it's the cost of doing business.

If what you're looking for is a "true number one" starting pitcher on the level of a Gerrit Cole, there isn't anyone available.

Don't feed the trolls, my man.

Anytime you miss McClanahan during a Rays series you've got to be happy about it. Let's see what they can do.

Jorge could potentially be a useful piece as the 24th or 25th man, between his defense and his ability to steal bases nearly at will. While I certainly don't think he should start, I can easily envision a "rest of 2023" where he comes off the bench for the O's. I don't think him getting sent packing is any kind of sure thing.

Part of the reason Mountcastle was important to us when we were rebuilding was because he was 23-years-old and full of potential. Now he's 1,500 at bats into his Major League career and has kind of established what he is. And he's not bad - he's just not exceptional, either. While his average will improve - as others have noted, his BABIP has been a bit unlucky - he's taking fewer walks than ever before and is a pretty standard swing-and-miss guy with a firm ceiling. And he's nothing to write home about defensively, so he gets no bonus points there. Dude is legitimately incapable of being the centerpiece of any kind of important trade.

Yeah, I get that Kevin Brown's job is to be the hype man when Grayson's AAA stats get flashed during a game, but I was hoping we'd get some solid discussion after that on what the Orioles are trying to accomplish with the demotion. Command, etc. Then again, Dave Johnson is just a fill-in on color, so he might not really be the best guy to talk about it anyway.

I'd agree with the "play the hot hand" camp, as there's not a lot of differentiation at the moment...and really none of these guys have a history of pitching in "big" games (mostly due to youth), so you can't even handpick a "battle-tested" guy. See where we're at before the game, go with the guy that's been pitching well and will have appropriate rest. Have a quick hook if needed. End of story.

He’s also gradually been regressing to what he is… a narrowly above replacement relief pitcher. His earlier work was unsustainable.

To be fair, part of the reason the guys that usually hit behind Mountcastle can’t hit three run homers is because Ryan has usually already struck out. Hard to drive in a guy that’s not on base.

I do not feel this is some sort of anti-small market conspiracy. And given what we know of the owners, it’s absolutely not an attempt by MLB to get teams to spend less on tech and more on players. All signs point to some of the league’s power brokers basically not wanting to have to pay for R&D, and griping that other teams do. Cutting expenses at all costs.

I’d contend they’re very different hitters than Mountcastle, but it’s still moot because dating back to Opening Day last year his slugging percentage is still markedly higher in Camden Yards than it is on the road. The guy’s problem isn’t the wall.

True, but you figure they might have accidentally caught a relief pitcher having one surprisingly good year, or something. But legitimately nothing.

I severely doubt Westburg or Cowser gets here until the Orioles are committed to playing them at least most days. They have made it fairly clear they aren’t doing that, yet.

It’s possible someone drops off for sure, but the rest of my statement remains the same: none of those teams would want anything to do with Ryan Mountcastle.

They amazingly don't have a single player that I think *any* contending team would want to buy... At least not that they'd actually move. Even the ones that a team might be interested in would really only qualify as bench/role players, they're young enough and cheap enough that it wouldn't make sense for Oakland to move on from them.

Why would any of those three teams - all of whom are very much in playoff contention themselves - deal an above average starting pitcher? The Verlander deal is vastly over-emphasized here just because of where Mike Elias used to work, but if you really want to make it your reference point... The Tigers were the worst team in baseball in 2017, and moved Verlander for three of the Astros' top 11 prospects. None of those prospects panned out, which is of course the gamble. But they were well-regarded at the time. The Orioles certainly have the assets that cut a deal like that, but it'd have to be with a rebuilding team. And the trade almost certainly wouldn't include Ryan Mountcastle, who is already 26-years old, plays a fairly replaceable position (and is mediocre as a position player, at best), and enters arbitration next year.